Aquatic Ecotoxicology - Chapter 19: Predictive Ecotoxicology and Environmental Assessment

The content of this book about tools, methodologies, and concepts, coauthored by scientific experts from many different institutes worldwide, highlights how assessing environmental risks of chemicals entering the aquatic environment as a consequence of human activities is a complicated task. Taking into account the lessons of the past, this chapter summarizes relevant strategies for emerging risks (e.g., innovative chemical methods, issue of mixtures, prioritization of research questions, investigations about modes of action for integration in adverse outcome pathways, ecotoxicological modeling). Important related issues have been taken into account, including global climate change, the emerging concern about plastic debris and the design of alternative methodologies to spare animal lives. Beyond the field of ecotoxicology, strategies for environmental protection (remediation, reduction, or replacing of harmful chemicals) are evoked. The conclusion insists on the necessary integration of environmental studies in the social, economic, and political context.